Author Comments

Reviews

Rated 3 / 5 stars2012-06-10 17:42:01

I think I find myself in the minority on one count, because I actually really liked the music (which some of the reviews criticized), so much so that I sampled it so that I can listen to it offline.
That said, I have to comment on the gameplay itself, because that's really the core of the game, and personally I found it very problematic. I like when a game is challenging and difficult, but the difference between a "difficult" game and a "badly structured" game, is that when I play a difficult game and I'm forced to go to the walkthrough, I say "Ohhh, that's what I missed." When I play a badly structured game and I'm forced to go to the walkthrough I say, "How the @!#$@ was I supposed to figure that out?!?!" See the difference?
Escape games need to have an intuitive quality, otherwise it's just guesswork. There needs to be some sense where the clues actually point to the solution, and it may take some creative, out-of-the-box thinking, but if you process the clues correctly, you'll get the right answer. With this game, there were too many puzzles in which there wasn't any room for intuition or deduction. In particular, I have to address the 6-digit door code puzzle, because that was the worst offender.
<SPOILER ALERT, by the way>
The "clues" for that puzzle were two elements, the operations in the locker (+**+-+) and the initial digits on the lock (123123). The answer turned out to be "466414", and the puzzle was to apply the opertations to the digits and get the result. The problem is, IT WAS NOT MATHEMATICALLY CONSISTENT! To get 4, you added 1 (the first digit) to 3 (the LAST digit), which would be "add to the value to the left". But to get the 6, you multiplied 2 (second digit) to the 3 (third digit), which means the operation is going to the right. But to get the second 6, you multiply the 3 by the 2 again, meaning now we're going left again. How the heck is anyone supposed to guess that you are adding, multiplying, and subtracting in a different direction each time? That would require ESP to read your mind and figure out how you computed the code. Well congratulations, you have proven that I do not have the capability of reading minds. However, these games are supposed to be about intuition and problem solving, not guesswork and mind-reading. So in future games, you need to structure your puzzles so that they follow a consistent logic. It's not about making the puzzles easy, it's about making them consistent so that if the player fails, it's because they missed something, and not simply because they couldn't guess an arbitrary value.
Okay, now that I've gotten that off of my chest, I'ma go listen to the music some more, because I really liked that.